Unibrain API-810 User manual

ubCore™ 3.1 User Guide
unibrain
The 1394 Innovators
e-mail: [e-mail] web: http://www.unibrain.com store: http://www.1394store.com/
1

ubCore™ 3.1 User Guide
November 2003
Unibrain introduces to the IEEE-1394 users and developers community, the latest ubCore™
version 3.1, the first and only FireWire (IEEE-1394) driver suite that fully supports the 1394b
standard. ubCore™ is a set of low-level drivers with a top-down layered structure that
provides the physical interface to various 1394 devices and includes the following
advantageous features:
•Full 1394b support at 800Mbps.
•Complete 1394a and 1394b SBP2 disk support for Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP.
•Comprehensive set of tools and applications.
•Seamless integration to all Windows OS.
•User friendly installation wizard.
ubCore™ combined with FireAPI™ (Unibrain's 1394 Development Toolkit), provides to the
software developer a powerful set of functions and tools that enables him to integrate 1394
technology into his product. Unibrain has built a number of 1394 applications based on
FireAPI™ and included in ubCore™:
•FireViewer™: a 1394 Bus Viewer utility that displays the current topology of the local
1394 bus.
•FireCommander™ a 1394 command interpreter tool that is used to pass commands
to the 1394 stack. Benchmarking support is included.
•FireNet™: Software to network two or more computers via 1394a or 1394b.
•Fire-i™: Software to Control and Display any 1394 Digital Camera (IIDC).
•Fire-Share™: Software to allow sharing of any 1394a or 1394b SBP2 disk among
multiple users. (Demo version)
Software Compatibility of ubCore™
•Windows NT4/98SE/Me/2000/XP
Hardware Compatibility of ubCore™
•Unibrain's or any third party 1394a or 1394b OHCI PCI/PCMCIA compliant adapter
•Any Desktop/Portable PC with built-in 1394a or 1394b OHCI support.
•Unibrain’s FireBoard400™ (PCI Lynx 2) 1394a PCI adapter.
Free Evaluation of ubCore™
The ubCore™ software you are about to install is the complete and fully functioning version
for all the Windows environments. Upon initial installation, usage is restricted to an
evaluation period of 30 minutes, at the end of which the driver stack will automatically turn off
(without affecting the rest of your computer operations in any way). You can repeat the demo
as many times as you wish by simply rebooting your PC.
Product Keys
To enable unrestricted use or “authorized” use of ubCore™ software, a Product Key is
required for each and every computer that has installed ubCore™. Product keys may be
purchased online at: http://www.1394store.com/
2

ubCore™ 3.1 User Guide
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS........................................................................................................... 3
TECHNICAL SUPPORT INFORMATION................................................................................5
FEATURES OF UBCORE 3.1 .................................................................................................6
UBCORE™VERSUS MICROSOFT 1394 STACK ............................................................................. 8
SETUP CHECKLIST..............................................................................................................10
UBCORE™ INSTALLATION.................................................................................................11
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................11
UBCORE™INSTALLATION PROCEDURE..................................................................................... 12
VERIFICATION OF UBCORE™INSTALLATION .............................................................................17
VERIFICATION ON WINDOWS NT4 .............................................................................................17
VERIFICATION ON WINDOWS 98SE/ME/2000/XP ......................................................................19
DIRECTORY STRUCTURE OF UBCORE™INSTALLATION.............................................................. 20
COEXISTENCE OF UBCORE™AND MICROSOFT 1394 STACK .....................................................23
THIRD PARTY 1394B PCI CONTROLLERS WORKING WITH UBCORE™......................................... 27
UNINSTALLING UBCORE™ .......................................................................................................28
UPGRADING UBCORE™ ...........................................................................................................28
UBCORE™ AUTHORIZATION PROCEDURE .....................................................................29
FIREAPI™ AUTHORIZATION PROCEDURE AND LICENSING POLICY ...........................31
1394A AND 1394B SBP2 DISK DRIVER..............................................................................32
INSTALLING SBP2 DISK DRIVER IN WINDOWS 98SE/ME............................................................ 33
1394 SBP2 EXTERNAL DISK CONNECTION ................................................................................ 35
SAFE REMOVAL OF 1394 SBP2 DISKS .....................................................................................40
FIREVIEWER™-1394 BUS VIEWER ....................................................................................41
THE NODE TREE ......................................................................................................................41
COLOR AND PATTERN CODING .................................................................................................43
ADAPTER SELECTION ...............................................................................................................44
WINDOW APPEARANCE ............................................................................................................ 45
NODE SIZE ...............................................................................................................................45
PORTS.....................................................................................................................................45
CAPTION AND MENU BAR ..........................................................................................................45
ALWAYS ON TOP.......................................................................................................................45
NODE PROPERTIES ..................................................................................................................46
BUS ANOMALIES.......................................................................................................................47
MENU ......................................................................................................................................48
VIEW MENU ..............................................................................................................................48
HELP MENU..............................................................................................................................48
FIRECOMMANDER™- 1394 COMMAND INTERPRETER...................................................49
RUNNING THE PROGRAM .......................................................................................................... 49
COMMAND SYNTAX ..................................................................................................................51
AVAILABLE COMMANDS............................................................................................................ 52
FIRENET™-1394 NETWORKING ......................................................................................... 59
3

ubCore™ 3.1 User Guide
INSTALLATION ON WINDOWS NT4 ............................................................................................ 59
VERIFY INSTALLATION ..............................................................................................................61
INSTALLATION ON WINDOWS 98SE/ME/2000/XP......................................................................62
UN-INSTALLING FIRENET™......................................................................................................65
FIRE-I™-1394 IIDC CAMERAS SUITE ................................................................................. 66
FIRE-I™COMPATIBILITY ..........................................................................................................66
FIRE-I™APPLICATION GUIDE...................................................................................................67
CONNECTED CAMERAS ............................................................................................................67
VIDEO FORMAT ........................................................................................................................67
VIDEO MODE............................................................................................................................67
FRAME RATE............................................................................................................................67
SPEED .....................................................................................................................................68
MEMORY PRESETS...................................................................................................................68
CAMERA CONTROL...................................................................................................................68
DISPLAY POPUP MENU .............................................................................................................69
FIRE-I™SHORT-KEYS .............................................................................................................72
FIRESHARE™ .......................................................................................................................73
IMPORTANT WARNING!............................................................................................................. 73
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................73
USING FIRESHARE™ ...............................................................................................................74
DISK COLORING .......................................................................................................................75
FIRESHARE™AUTHORIZATION ................................................................................................. 77
4

ubCore™ 3.1 User Guide
Technical Support Information
All technical support questions should be directed to the following email address:
[email protected]
This address is monitored throughout the day by Unibrain’s 1394 support team, who will
respond quickly and with the required technical accuracy, to your questions.
Please refrain from sending any queries directly to Unibrain engineering staff, in order to
maintain our support database and make sure that your email will be responded to, in case
any specific person is unavailable. Please, try to be as specific as possible in your inquiries
to this email address, and to restrict questions to technical issues.
For pricing and marketing information, please e-mail at:
[email protected]
For ordering any Unibrain product please visit:
http://www.unibrain.com/
http://www.1394store.com/
5

ubCore™ 3.1 User Guide
Features of ubCore 3.1
ubCore™ version 3.1 provides to both existing customers and to new users, the next
generation of Unibrain’s innovative 1394 driver suite with the following advantageous
features:
1). Full 1394b support at 800Mbps speed rate. ubCore™ 3.1 is the first and only IEEE-
1394 (FireWire) driver platform providing full support of the latest 1394b standard. This
support includes amongst others:
•New Self-ID Packets
•Changes to PHY Register Set
•Request Higher speed packets
•Request bigger packets at higher speeds
•Pipelining of packet transmit requests
•Handling faster receipt of BOSS asynchronous packets
•Path Speed being Port dependent and not Node Dependent
•Adapt to longer length cables and larger variations in PHY repeater delays
•Picking the most optimal packet format
•Initiating and resuming from the “Standby” power mode
2). Full 1394b support at S100 (CAT5) and S200 (POF) speed rates. ubCore™ 3.1 is the
first and only IEEE-1394 (FireWire) driver platform providing full support of S100 speed rate
using CAT5 cable as the interconnection mean between two nodes. Moreover ubCore™ fully
supports the S200 speed between two nodes connected via Plastic Optical Fiber (POF).
With sophisticated and recursive built in algorithms, ubCore™ builds a correct speed map of
each port of every node in the 1394b bus. This speed map determines the maximum speed
that a node can be accessed. ubCore™ can do transactions at any speed, and uses the
maximum speed of a specific node that works. This automatic mechanism enables the
correct communication of every node in a 1394b bus even if not all devices operate at S100
or S200 speeds.
3). Complete SBP2 support for 1394a and 1394b SBP2 hard disks. SBP-2 ("Serial Bus
Protocol", 2nd version) is the best model for computer peripherals. Its use is strongly
preferred, largely because it greatly reduces interrupt load on the CPU, and provides a
scalable DMA model. The general architecture provides a command and data transport
mechanism that exports the command processing and queuing to the peripheral, effectively
making each device a powerful scriptable DMA device. This is done by mapping some area
of the CPU's memory directly to 1394's memory space, building a linked-list of commands
and pointers to data buffers in that area, and then giving the address of that list to the device.
The device then reads the commands directly from the CPU and takes the appropriate
action, including reading data from or writing data directly to CPU memory.
Unibrain’s 1394 SBP2 driver is fine tuned for speeds of 800Mbps providing the fastest
1394b interface to external S800 SBP2 Hard disks. It is also compatible and fully
supports Removable Devices and other SBP2 compliant devices like Apple’s iPod.
Moreover Unibrain provides the Fire-Share™ 1394 SBP2 application for multi-share of 1394
SBP2 hard disks. As you probably know, while it is possible for a PC to attach to many
6

ubCore™ 3.1 User Guide
external 1394 SBP2 disks, it is impossible to simultaneously attach one 1394 SBP2 disk to
many PCs connected via FireWire. In other words the SBP2 drive will be attached and
recognized only by one PC, in a FireWire network. With Fire-Share™ you are now able to
have mutually exclusive usage of the 1394 SBP2 disk, and once used, you can release it
notifying the other PCs so this disk becomes available for other user.
4). IIDC 1394 Digital Cameras Specification 1.30 support
Along with ubCore™ 3.1, you receive the full IIDC 1394 stack to control and display 1394
digital cameras.
5). Native networking capabilities provided by FireNet™
Unibrain’s FireNet™ software, one more application implemented over ubCore™, is THE
FIRST FireWire™ Networking Solution for ALL Windows platforms. FireNet™ is a system-
independent software product that gives you full Ethernet compatibility at speeds of up to
800Mbps. The basic features of FireNet™ are:
•Complete Ethernet emulation.
•Supports various network protocols: TCP/IP, NetBEUI, IPX/SPX, etc.
•High speed – up to 8 times the performance of 100Mbps fast Ethernet.
•No hubs, no routers, complicated cabling, or complex installations.
•Fast and Easy installation.
6). Support on ALL Microsoft operating systems: NT4/98SE/Me/2000/XP. Unibrain's
ubCore™ is the only existing 1394b software platform for the Windows environments.
7). Complete hardware support. ubCore™ 3.1 supports Unibrain's or any third party 1394a
or 1394b OHCI PCI/PCMCIA compliant adapter or any Desktop/Portable PC with built-in
1394a or 1394b OHCI support. Also supports Unibrain’s FireBoard400™ (PCI Lynx 2) 1394a
PCI adapter.
7

ubCore™ 3.1 User Guide
ubCore™ versus Microsoft 1394 stack
As is already mentioned, ubCore™ is a complete driver stack providing support for all 1394a
and 1394b devices. With your Microsoft operating system you get also a 1394a driver stack
built in, for the support of all the 1394a devices. The following comparison table presents the
basic ubCore™ features and advantages in contrast with the features of the Microsoft 1394
stack.
Features Microsoft 1394 stack ubCore™ 3.x /FireAPI™ 3.x
1394a Software support NO Windows NT4 Windows NT4, 98SE, Me, 2000, XP
1394b Software support NO Windows NT4, 98SE, Me, 2000, XP
1394a Hardware support OHCI only Lynx2 and OHCI compatible boards
1394b Hardware support NO
FireBoard800™ and any other 1394b
compliant device based on the Texas
Instruments TSB82AA2 1394b to PCI
controller.
IIDC 1394 cameras
Primitive support on
Windows 98Se, Me, 2000,
XP
Fire-i™ application and IIDC drivers for
Windows NT4, 98SE, Me, 2000, XP.
(FireAPI™ includes FULL source code)
1394 SBP2 Hard Disk
support No sharing application FireShare™ application
1394 Native Networking Primitive support on
Windows Me, XP
FireNet™ drivers for
Windows NT4, 98SE, Me, 2000, XP
1394 Topology Tool NO
FireViewer™ application, a 1394 Bus
Viewer utility that displays the current
topology of the local 1394 bus.
(FireAPI™ includes FULL source code)
1394 Control Tool NO
FireCommander™ application, a 1394
command interpreter tool that is used
to pass commands to the 1394 stack.
(FireAPI™ includes FULL source code)
Serial Bus Manager NO
SBM™ driver, providing the set of
functions to control bus management
and isochronous resource
management. (FireAPI™ includes
FULL source code)
8

ubCore™ 3.1 User Guide
Virtual 1394 Device
support
Primitive support on
Windows Me, XP Windows NT4, 98SE, Me, 2000, XP
User mode API for
applications development NO YES (FireAPI™)
Loopback functionality. NO YES
Source samples
(for FireAPI™) 2 44
Support NO YES
Table 1: ubCore™ versus MS 1394 stack
9

ubCore™ 3.1 User Guide
Setup Checklist
Before proceeding with the product installation, please verify that:
Check No. Description Check? (√)
1 Your host PC operating system is Windows
NT4/98SE/Me/2000/XP.
2 For all operating systems (but especially for Windows
98SE and Windows Me), please be sure to have latest
updates installed!
3 Your PC has a FireWire (i-Link) IEEE-1394 interface
based on:
•Unibrain's or any third party 1394a or 1394b OHCI
PCI/PCMCIA compliant adapter or
•any built-in 1394a or 1394b OHCI support or
•Unibrain’s FireBoard400™ (PCI Lynx 2) 1394a
PCI adapter.
4 You have disabled the Plug and Play Operating System
flag on your BIOS setup, in case that you are going to
install ubCore™ into Windows NT 4.0 system. Please
also verify that your system has installed Service Pack 6!
5 IMPORTANT! Always UNPLUG the connecting
FireWire cables between all the FireWire computers
and devices before you begin installing or
uninstalling ubCore™ software.
6 IMPORTANT! ALWAYS COMPLETELY UNINSTALL
ANY PREVIOUS VERSION OF ubCore™ BEFORE
INSTALLING THE NEW ONE. Please refer to section
“Upgrading ubCore™”
Table 2: Setup Checklist
10